136 THE TOOT-POISON OF NEW ZEALAND. 



and manufacturing purposes. The chief improvements introduced have 

 been the use of palm oil, bleached by Watts' process, and the manufac- 

 ture of the ley by boiling the alkali with the lime instead of the so-called 

 " cold process." The total quantity now manufactured exceeds 6,000 

 tons per annum. The prices of various materials at the 'present time 

 are as follows : — Tallow, first sort, T. C, 43s. 6d. ; fine American rosin, 

 36s. to 39s. ; best yellow soap, 33s. to 35s. ; best mottled soap, 33s. 

 per cwt. 



To be continued. 



THE TOOT-POISON OF NEW ZEALAND. 

 By W. Lauder Lindsay, M.D. and F.R.S. Edin., F.L.S., &c. 



During a tour through the New Zealand provinces in 1861-1862, the 

 writer was struck with the abundant evidences which everywhere pre- 

 sented themselves of the ravages produced among the flocks and herds 

 of the. settlers by the loot-plant, one of the most common indigenous 

 shrubs of those islands. In many cases of losses by individual settlers 

 brought under his notice, the amount from this source alone had been 

 from 25 to 75 per cent. In Otago particularly were such losses felt 

 during the height of the gold mania there, from July to December 1861 : 

 the traffic between Dunedin and Tuapeka gold-fields required the service 

 of large numbers of bullocks, a great proportion of which were lost by 

 Toot-poisoning. In colonies which as yet, at least, have depended for 

 their prosperity almost solely on pastoral enterprise, such losses form a 

 material barrier to prosperity ; and the concurrent testimony of the 

 colonists in every part of New Zealand proves the great desirability of 

 determining the nature of the Toot-poison, the laws of its action on 

 man and the lower animals, and its appropriate antidotes or modes of 

 treatment. With a view to assist in the attainment of these aims, the 

 writer had made notes, on the spot, of a large number of instances of 

 the poisonous or fatal action of the plant on man — adults as well as 

 children — and the lower animals, and had brought specimens home for 

 chemical examination. The chief results of his investigations may be 

 thus stated : — 



1. The Toot-poison belongs to the class of Narcotic -irritants. 



a. Its action on man includes the following symptoms : — coma, with 

 or without delirium ; sometimes great muscular excitement or convul- 

 sions, the details differing in different individuals ; during convalescence, 

 loss of memory, with or without vertigo. 



b. In cattle and sheep, they include vertigo, stupor, delirium, and 

 convulsions ; curious staggerings and gyrations ; frantic kicking and 

 lacing or coursing ; tremors, 



